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March Land Rover Sales Slump as Jaguar Roars Ahead

Total unit sales in March were up 2.7% year-over-year.

Tata Motors (NYSE:TTM)released its March Jaguar Land Rover sales volumes today, and Land Rover numbers took a worldwide hit. While Jaguar sales were up a seasonally adjusted 19.4% year-over-year last month, Land Rover unit sales were down 1.1% year-over-year.

Things look slightly better over the longer term, but still appear relatively less rosy for Land Rover. While Jaguar has seen unit sales soar a seasonally adjusted 37% over the past 12 months, Land Rover has moved ahead just 12%. Jaguar is the much smaller unit, making up some 18% of overall units sold.

Regionally, Jaguar has seen sales more than double in China over the past year. With 19,891 units sold, Tata Motors handed over 434 more sets of Jaguar keys in China than it did in North America. Europe had the slowest growth for Jaguar, up just 5.5% in the past 12 months.

For Land Rover, March sales year-over-year rode into the red for the United Kingdom (-6%), Europe (-6.7%), and "all other markets" (-19.2%). China and Asia-Pacific sales proved to be this luxury line's saving grace, with sales up 27% and 26.4%, respectively. In the past year, the Asia-Pacific has been Land Rover's strongest sales region, up 27%, while Europe sales oozed up just 1.8% for the same time period.

Tata Motors purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008 for $2.3 billion. In the past six years, it has grown to be the India-based automaker's most profitable arm. For the two luxury lines combined, March unit sales were up a seasonally adjusted 2.7% year-over-year, while sales over the past year have increased 15.9% to 434,311 units.